Where'd The Facts Go In Center For Individual Freedom's Latest Ads?

October 20, 2010 2:11 pm ET

The Center for Individual Freedom has launched a series of ads attacking the economic policies supported by Congressmen Jim Costa (D-CA) and John Adler (D-NJ). CFIF invokes the standard right-wing talking point in claiming that the stimulus has "failed" and has "killed our jobs," when in reality, the program stabilized the economy and saved millions of jobs. The organization also criticizes Adler and Costa for "increasing the debt limit" by trillions — action that the CFIF fails to note was necessary for preventing the U.S. from, effectively, entering into default.

Center For Individual Freedom: "Debt"

They promised us jobs. Instead, we
got generations of debt. Where'd the money and jobs go? Just ask Congressman [Jim Costa/John Adler]. [Costa/Adler] voted with Nancy Pelosi to
increase the national debt limit by trillions of dollars, and [Costa/Adler] supported the failed
stimulus that cost taxpayers over $800 billion. [Costa's/Adler's] votes helped Obama and Pelosi, but killed our
jobs. Tell him to stop wasting our money. The Center for Individual Freedom is
responsible for the content of this advertising.

Where'd The Money Go? It Stabilized The
Economy And Saved Millions Of Jobs

The Economy Shed Almost 8 Million Jobs Under
Republican Policies Before The Recovery Act Was Passed. According
to economist Robert J. Shapiro:

From December 2007 to July 2009 - the
last year of the Bush second term and the first six months of the Obama
presidency, before his policies could affect the economy - private sector
employment crashed from 115,574,000 jobs to 107,778,000 jobs. Employment
continued to fall, however, for the next six months, reaching a low of
107,107,000 jobs in December of 2009. So, out of 8,467,000 private sector jobs
lost in this dismal cycle, 7,796,000 of those jobs or 92 percent were lost on
the Republicans' watch or under the sway of their policies. Some 671,000
additional jobs were lost as the stimulus and other moves by the administration
kicked in, but 630,000 jobs then came back in the following six months. The
tally, to date: Mr. Obama can be held accountable for the net loss of 41,000
jobs (671,000 - 630,000), while the Republicans should be held responsible for
the net losses of 7,796,000 jobs. [Sonecon.com, 8/10/10, emphasis added]

Based on Shapiro's research, the Washington
Post's Ezra Klein created the following chart showing net job losses before
and after the Recovery Act was enacted:

CBO: The Recovery Act Created Jobs, Lowered
Unemployment, And Boosted GDP. According to the nonpartisan
Congressional Budget Office, through the second quarter of 2010, the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act:

Reuters: The Recovery Act May
Have "Prevented The Sluggish Economy From Contracting" Between April
And June. According to Reuters:

The massive U.S. stimulus package put millions
of people to work and boosted national output by hundreds of billions of
dollars in the second quarter, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said
on Tuesday.

CBO's latest estimate indicates
that the stimulus effort, which remains a political hot potato ahead of the November
congressional elections, may have prevented the sluggish U.S. economy from contracting
between April and June.

Princeton,
Moody's Economists Say "Highly Effective" Government Response To
Crisis Saved 8.5 Million Jobs. According to the New York
Times: "Like a mantra, officials from both the Bush and Obama
administrations have trumpeted how the government's sweeping interventions to
prop up the economy since 2008 helped avert a second Depression. Now, two
leading economists wielding complex quantitative models say that assertion can
be empirically proved. In a new paper, the economists argue that
without the Wall Street bailout, the bank stress tests, the emergency
lending and asset purchases by the Federal Reserve, and the Obama
administration's fiscal stimulus program, the nation's gross domestic
product would be about 6.5 percent lower this year. In addition, there
would be about 8.5 million fewer jobs, on top of the more than 8 million
already lost; and the economy would be experiencing deflation,
instead of low inflation. The paper, by Alan S. Blinder, a Princeton professor and former vice chairman of the
Fed, and Mark Zandi, chief economist
at Moody's Analytics, represents a first stab at
comprehensively estimating the effects of the economic policy responses of the
last few years. 'While the effectiveness of any individual element certainly
can be debated, there is little doubt that in total, the policy response was
highly effective,' they write." [New
York Times, 7/27/10,
emphasis added]

Raising The Debt Limit Prevented The
Country From Going Into Default

The
Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010 increased
the debt limit from $12.394 trillion to $14.294 trillion.

Higher
Debt Ceiling Needed To Avoid Default And Its Potentially Disastrous Results.
From CNN's Political Ticker: "The debt limit
hike is expected to cover the Treasury's borrowing needs past the November
mid-term elections and into 2011. If the debt ceiling were ever breached, the
country would effectively be in default. That would slam bonds, the dollar and
creditors' portfolios." [CNN, 2/12/10]

Bush Policies And The Recession — Not
Reps. Costa And Adler — Blew Up The Deficit

Before Obama Took Office, The FY 2009 Deficit Was Projected At $1.2
Trillion. As reported by the Washington Times: "The Congressional Budget
Office announced a projected fiscal 2009 deficit of $1.2 trillion even if
Congress doesn't enact any new programs. [...] About
the only person who was silent on the deficit projection was Mr. Bush, who took
office facing a surplus but who saw spending balloon and the country notch the
highest deficits on record." [Washington Times, 1/8/09,
emphasis added]

The Bush Tax Cuts Are The Primary Driver Of Federal Budget Deficits
Over The Next Decade. Below is a chart from CBPP showing the deficit
impacts of war spending, financial recovery spending, the recession itself, and
the Bush tax cuts:

Public And Foreign-Held Debt Skyrocketed While Bush Was In Office. Below
are two graphs prepared by the Speaker's office showing the increase of
publically and foreign-held debt during the years Bush was in office: